FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4-15-08

FOUNTAIN HILLS COMMUNITY THEATER IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE OPENING OF THE MUSICAL ‘MISS SAIGON’

WHAT:          Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.  

WHEN:          May 2 - 25, 2008 (Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 2:00 pm)

WHERE:       Fountain Hills Community Theater (11445 N Saguaro Blvd., Fountain Hills, AZ)

HOW:             Reservations: (480) 837-9661 x3 Visa/MC/Amex/Discover

PRICE:          Individual Adult Tickets $20, Children 12 and under $15.

Fountain Hills Community Theater is proud to announce the opening of the musical  Miss Saigon.

Miss Saigon is a modern adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970’s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madame Butterfly's American Lieutenant and Japanese geisha coupling is replaced by a romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl.

The show's inspiration was reportedly a photograph, inadvertently found by Schönberg in a magazine. The photo showed a Vietnamese mother leaving her child at a departure gate at Tan Son Nhut Air Base to board a plane headed for the United States where her father, an ex-GI, would be in a position to provide a much better life for the child. Schönberg considered this mother's actions for her child to be "The Ultimate Sacrifice," an idea central to the plot of Miss Saigon.

Miss Saigon is produced by Patricia Tonzi, directed by Peter J. Hill, choreographed by Noel Irick and musically directed by Christie McKibben.  Miss Saigon stars Jesse Berger, Mark Burkett, Michelle Chin, Ricky Duarte, Jasmin Feliciano, Nick Feliciano, Brian Elam, Darren Scott Friedman, May Gibbs, Dawn LeSueur, Luo Ma, Ben Medina, Angelie Meehan, Ukiah Odom, Andrea Robertson, Douglas Simmons, Michael Stewart, Ronald Tang,  and Kayte Zhang.

Miss Saigon will play May 2 through 25, 2008.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 P.M. and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 P.M. Individual tickets are $20.00 for Adults and $15.00 for children 12 and under.  All performances are at Fountain Hills Community Theater on its Mainstage at 11445 N. Saguaro Blvd. (The Corner of Saguaro and Rand). Tickets are available through the theater Box Office at (480) 837-9661 x3.  Box Office Hours are 10:00 AM-5:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday.

For publicity photos, please contact Fountain Hills Community Theater Publicity, Patty Torrilhon at (480) 837-9661 or visit our website at www.fhct.org for production photos.

For additional information not contained in this press release, please call Fountain Hills Community Theater Artistic Director, Peter J. Hill at (480) 837-9661 EXT. 7.